An electrical network in the sense of the present application having any interconnection of electrical components such as computer components inside a computer or computers themselves. The devices connected to the network are being generally called network devices. The data transfer between the network devices may be accomplished using both wired and wireless interconnections. In particular, a bus may be used for transferring data between the network devices. Unlike a point to point connection, a bus can logically connect several network devices over the same wires. Each bus defines the sockets for physically connecting network devices such as computer hardware.
A bus network is a simple way to connect multiple network devices. However, problems may occur if more than one network device wants to transfer data cross the network at the same time. In order to rule out conflicts between network devices connected to the same bus network, a bus master is implemented. The bus master controls the transfer of data between the network devices. Whenever a particular network device intends to transfer data across the bus to another network device, it must request permission from the bus master. The bus master returns the admission and the time slots for transferring the respective data.
An identification code must be assigned to each network device connected to the network. This code is needed to indicate the destination and origin of a particular data packet transferred across the network. The identification code must be a unique numerical character. During the system start up phase of the electronic network, the network devices communicate the unique identification code to the bus master. This unique identification code is conventionally stored in an internal or external flash memory of the network device. The identification code is associated with the respective network device during its production. This has several disadvantages. First of all, an additional read only memory must be attached to each network device. Additional chips must be implemented for copying the identification code from the flash memory to the input/output of the network device. Since the network devices are produced and used by many different enterprises, the number of possible network devices and consequently the associated identification codes must have a great size. Many different enterprises must cooperate in order to avoid that the same network identification code is signed to different network devices. The management of these identification codes is expensive and cumbersome.
For these or other reasons, there is a need for the present invention.